PN pledges to sponsor a charging pillar for every 50 parking spots in private car parks

If in government, the Nationalist Party would commission a beach profiling study and transfer NGO-administered land directly to the voluntary organisation

From left to right: PN MP David Thake, Opposition whip Robert Cutajar and PN candidate Janice Chetcuti
From left to right: PN MP David Thake, Opposition whip Robert Cutajar and PN candidate Janice Chetcuti

A Nationalist Party government would sponsor a charging pillar for every 50 parking spots in private car parks, MP David Thake said on Tuesday.

“The PN’s strategy is clear. We want everyone, in as many localities as possible, to have access to charging spots,” Thake said.

He remarked that the shortage of charging pillars was addressed by government when it announced that 362 charging spots will be up-and-running by the end of the year

However, he said that Minister Miriam Dalli "invented" the claim that 60% of electric car owners would charge their car at home.

PN MP Robert Cutajar mentioned the COP26 climate change conference and said that, despite its size, Malta should be a leader on climate change.

Cutajar reiterated the PN's proposals for pedestrian areas and tree mapping in all localities, praising them to be positive measures that help the environment.

A new proposal being floated by the Opposition is the commissioning of a beach profiling study to help government plan and manage better coasts and beaches.

The party is also proposing for sites managed by NGOs to be legally transferred to them. “We don’t want government entities damaging the environment. We believe in a change in quality, a change with a vision,” Cutajar added.

When asked about the government's pledge on decarbonisaton, Cutajar said that the Labour government wasted nine years in this area. Eventually, it had no alternative but to negotiate the decarbonisation rate from 36% to 19%.

He added that the government also failed to reach waste management targets.

Janice Chetcuti, who heads the PN’s working group on environmental policies, said that a lot is to be done in order to limit the temperature increase globally. She mentioned that the extreme weather experienced lately is a tangible effect of climate change.

"The aim is to achieve global net zero until the middle of this century so that the global temperature does not rise over 1.5C," she stated.

Chetcuti also said that the Nationalist Party vowed to make all its properties greener by planting more trees and greenery.